The cap on the AML share price

I hear from shareholders and investors who constantly ask "why isn't the AML share price higher, this is a fabulous project'
I'll use my near on 40 years experience in the market to try to answer the question.

Firstly, the Orchard Capital thing, OL Master Limited, OCP Asia (Hong Kong) Limited etc, I'll refer to them as Orchard.
This is the millstone that keeps the share price under water in my opinion. These guys are the largest shareholder AND major creditor. They currently have 80,000,000 shares and 158,000,000 warrants, which if all exercised, will take them to 47.22%
The company currently owes Orchard north of $30 million secured by the Walford Creek project. Paul Harris, the chairman, is Orchards man on the board and as chairman on a four man board has the casting vote. That gives Orchard an uneasy advantage in my book, and i believe the market agrees. I believe the 'Orchard factor' to be a major reckoning in the pricing of the recent raising at 14cents; the big guys simply wouldn't pay any more under the current circumstances (remember that Bell Potter stated in their excellent report dated 28th July that they thought a raise was likely at 19c) Further, Harris has a consultancy agreement with Orchard,( which for a significant time he refused to disclose to shareholders) With that style of attachment I believe it hard to argue that he is NOT associated with Orchard. The board sees it differently, they were happy to accept the vote of Orchard at the recent EGM for the issue of shares to Harris. In my view there is serious conflict there, and i know many shareholders/investors agree with that sentiment. The board may be comfortable in their interpretation of the law, however as far as the market is concerned it fails the 'smell test' and that's what matters to shareholders because it is reflected in the share price.
I believe shareholders would do well to keep this in mind when Harris comes up for re election at an AGM.

Secondly, Management. The management team has an unenviable record of over promising and under delivering. Take the 2014 annual report in which the company promised a PFS by end of 2015. It didn't happen, in fact it was more than a year late and when it did arrive it was the the most unimpressive document I have ever seen. In March this year the company said it would have the BFS for Vardys out by end of year...that wont happen, Bell Potter have said in their excellent report (now on the website) that the BFS can be expected 1H 2018. The company also stated in the March report that production would commence at Vardys in Q1 2019...that wont happen either. These are not isolated examples, the road is littered with such failures.
The Harris/Collins team walked away from the Century Zinc deal with MMG. That deal would have potentially added $200 million to the value of Aeon on current valuations. Harris/Collins spent more than a year looking at the deal, all the historical information that has subsequently been published by NCZ was available to H/C....they walked away from a company making deal citing things like remediation liabilities etc, however as always the market is the best judge, it has valued NCZ north of $200 million (as I write) with the liabilities factored in!!! Doing the deal would required H/C to move out of their comfort zones, put the shoulder to the wheel so to speak. This was obviously unpalatable, especially if you are on a fat salary with no skin in the game.
Former director John Goody urged the board to move forward with the deal, but to no avail, he was overruled. Mr Goody was the second largest shareholder at the time with 35,000,000 shares. He resigned as a director last September and has since sold his shares (largely off market). He was totally frustrated with what he perceived as the petulance, incompetence and ineptitude of the H/C duo. He believes the project is worth multiples of current value, however he has no faith that present management can unlock that value.

This is an extremely viable and valuable project, there should be significant upgrades in tonnage and grade after recent drilling, and on going drilling will more than likely turn up more of the good stuff. But I don't expect any significant upside in the share price until these issues are resolved.